Monday, May 20, 2019
5th Week of Easter
1st Reading: Acts 14:5–18
Gospel: Jn 14:21–26
Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever keeps my commandments is the one who loves me. If he loves me, he will also be loved by my Father; I too shall love him and show myself clearly to him.”
Judas—not the Iscariot—asked Jesus, “Lord, how can it be that you will show yourself clearly to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him; and we will come to him and make a room in his home. But if anyone does not love me, he will not keep my words, and these words that you hear are not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
“I told you all this while I was still with you. From now on the Helper, the Holy Spi-rit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of all that I have told you.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Jesus introduced the Holy Spirit to his disciples as the one who will remind them of all the things that he had told them. In John Chapter 16 Jesus said practically the same thing when he told them: “When he (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will show the world how wrong it was, about sin, and about who was in the right” (John 16:8).
The role of the Holy Spirit shines all the more in the light of our experience with our conscience. Yes, conscience too can err especially when affected by our frequent indulgence in sin. It is akin to what happens to an electric ‘thermos’ bottle when layers of water impurities build up on its inner cylinder. As these layers thicken, boiling takes longer because the layers prevent transmission of heat to the water.
Similarly, sin insulates conscience, rendering it incapable of transmitting the right moral dictates to the person. The Holy Spirit re-sensitizes our conscience by making us aware of the da-mage sin can cause to our lives. The Holy Spirit inspires us to come to the fountain of God’s mercy, humbly believing that God’s capacity to forgive is greater than our capacity to commit sin.
There are people howe-ver who refuse to respond to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. If they are deprived of God’s forgiveness it is because of their own doing. This is what Matthew meant when he wrote that all sins can be forgiven except the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:31). To refuse the power of the Holy Spirit is to blaspheme him and to clog the fount of God’s mercy so it can no longer flow towards us.
Jesus left his disciples behind with the Father’s promise of sending down the Holy Spirit. We are heirs to the same promise. But the choice is still ours. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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